Summary
Summary of Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison
Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 8 h 50 min7 h fast, 10 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 126,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1897by Austin Bidwell
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Innocence offers no practical protection
Austin Bidwell grows up in a loving Brooklyn home, but affection and schooling leave him unprepared for the world of money. He advances through school without learning to write a grammatical sentence. His mother prays over him, while neither parent explains the dangers he might meet outside.
At sixteen, he enters a sugar broker's office and finds clever clerks who mock his manners and talk of fortunes in gold. His innocence leaves him exposed to people who know how to turn his ignorance into opportunity.
Key idea 2
Debt makes crime look like escape
Ed Weed introduces Bidwell to fine dinners, fashionable clothes and credit that seems easy to obtain.
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Key idea 3
Corruption gives crime powerful friends
Bidwell pauses his own story to describe a city where officers and political bosses share payments from gambling rooms.
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Key idea 4
Easy success weakens the wish to stop
Carrying stolen bonds in a small handbag, Bidwell sails to Europe and presents himself to Frankfurt bankers as a man planning to buy copper mines.
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Key idea 5
A discarded scrap breaks the scheme
With his debts paid, Bidwell enjoys respect on Wall Street while his family believes a lucky deal explains his money.
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Key idea 6
Trust replaces scrutiny at the bank
In London, Bidwell decides that the Bank of England's confidence in its own methods makes it vulnerable.
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Key idea 7
One missing date exposes the fraud
The forged bills bring payments, and the partners prepare to destroy their materials.
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Key idea 8
A shared promise steadies the mind
After the trial, Bidwell and his companions face life sentences.
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Key idea 9
Fraud and confinement reveal fragile foundations
Bidwell's account links the appearance of security to the danger beneath it.
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Go deeper: the whole of Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison
About 9 h 10 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
Readers who love true crime, financial intrigue and Victorian travel will find plenty here. So will anyone curious about how a confident young man talks himself into fraud.
What this book is
Picture a sixteen-year-old Brooklyn boy whose whole library is the life of King David, a book of martyrs and a few penny stories about pirates. He steps into Wall Street with a job and no worldly wisdom at all. Within a few years he wears the best clothes in New York. Within a few more he carries forged paper through the banks of Europe.
Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison is the memoir of Austin Bidwell, one of four Americans behind the 1873 forgeries against the Bank of England. He wrote it after twenty years in prison, and he tells it with swagger, regret and a sharp eye. He points again and again to the small slip that wrecks a clever plan, and to the Primrose Way, which is lined with flowers and ends in a cell.
In this summary
- 1Innocence offers no practical protectionFree
- 2Debt makes crime look like escape
- 3Corruption gives crime powerful friends
- 4Easy success weakens the wish to stop
- 5A discarded scrap breaks the scheme
- 6Trust replaces scrutiny at the bank
- 7One missing date exposes the fraud
- 8A shared promise steadies the mind
- 9Fraud and confinement reveal fragile foundations
A sheltered boy learns almost nothing useful
Bidwell opens with his schooling, and he is blunt about it. He attends Public School Number 13 in South Brooklyn for years and moves up grade after grade. Yet he leaves unable to write a grammatical sentence.
His home is loving but cut off from the world. His mother lives for heaven and prays over him each night. Neither parent teaches him a thing about money, men or danger.
At sixteen his father finds him a place in a sugar broker's office. There he lands among clever young clerks who laugh at his country manners, and one fills his head with stories of fortunes made in the gold room. Innocence without practical knowledge is not protection, it is an invitation.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Bidwell first agree to sell stolen bonds?
Right. “One frightened decision, made under debt and wine, can start a whole life of crime.”Not quite. “One frightened decision, made under debt and wine, can start a whole life of crime.”
What allows the forged bills to pass at the Bank of England?
Right. “Nobody at the bank checks with the banks named on the bills.”Not quite. “Nobody at the bank checks with the banks named on the bills.”
What promise do the prisoners make before separating?
Right. “They promise to read one chapter of the Bible every day, in order, and think of the others at that hour.”Not quite. “They promise to read one chapter of the Bible every day, in order, and think of the others at that hour.”
Go deeper: the whole of Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison
About 9 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 126,200 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 50 min
Questions about Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison
What is Bidwell's Travels about?
It is Austin Bidwell's memoir of how he went from a Brooklyn clerk to a forger, helped defraud the Bank of England in 1873, was captured in Cuba and then spent twenty years in English prisons.
Who was F. A. Warren?
Frederick Albert Warren was the false name Bidwell used as a rich American customer of the Bank of England. Under that name he deposited money, bought stocks and introduced forged bills of exchange.
What was the Bank of England forgery of 1873?
Four Americans submitted forged bills of exchange to the bank and drew gold and bonds against them. The bank did not check the bills with the banks named on them until a missing date drew attention.
What does the Primrose Way mean in the book?
It is Bidwell's name for the pleasant-looking path of easy money and fast living. He uses it again and again to show that such a road, lined with flowers and music, ends in ruin.
Is Bidwell's Travels a true story and is it easy to follow?
It is a first-person memoir written after his release from prison. The chapters are short and full of scenes, chases and plain explanations of bonds, bills and prison rules, so it reads like an adventure.
Cite this edition
Bidwell, Austin. Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison.
Bidwell, A. (2026). Bidwell's travels, from Wall Street to London prison. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison (Original work published 1897)
Bidwell, Austin. Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison.
@book{bidwell2026bidwells,
author = {Bidwell, Austin},
title = {Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison},
note = {First published 1897}
}
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